Word: zapatero
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Spanish voters will most likely reelect Rodríguez Zapatero by a very small margin on Sunday. By contrast to American Democrats, they will go with a proven leader who happens to enjoy statistical data. (To be fair, he is also a more charismatic speaker than his opponent.) Yet regardless of the administration’s good management, the shrinking gap in Spanish polls would probably have given the conservatives power if the election were to held just a few months from now, let alone a year. Then, the economic outlook might have been much worse and immigration might have...
...Almost four years ago, right before the election, the 11-M terrorist attacks in Madrid turned millions to the streets to protest against former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his foreign policy, giving Rodríguez Zapatero, then the underdog, a clear edge. Once again, good timing has saved the Socialists’ election fortunes, delaying the inevitable economic doubts that loom in the Spanish horizon...
Spain's electoral campaign has never been a decorous affair, but Monday night's nationally televised electoral debate between Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Popular Party (PP) candidate Mariano Rajoy was often downright nasty. For long stretches, it sank into a cacophony of insults, interruptions, and petty squabbling over who was the bigger liar. Yet in the end, Zapatero offered more concrete prescriptions for the next legislature, and that, it seems, persuaded the Spanish public to deem him the victor of this second debate, just as it had after the first, held a week...
...spokesperson and a candidate for parliamentary reelection. "Their economic policies have been very risky, very irresponsible, and Spanish families are paying the price." The PP has also linked economic woes to what it believes is widespread anxiety over Spain's burgeoning immigrant population. During Monday's debate, Rajoy blamed Zapatero for 2005's mass regularization of immigrants, arguing that they "couldn't all fit." Borrowing a page from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Rajoy also repeated his party's call for greater "control and order" of immigrants, promising, if elected, to require them to sign a contract agreeing to conform...
...Both parties continue to play up their signature issues as well. The Socialists have made their social initiatives - legalizing gay marriage, easing divorce laws, requiring gender parity in political parties, and creating a comprehensive law against domestic violence - a primary talking point, and have promised, as Zapatero said in Monday's debate, to work for "a definitive equality between men and women" that would include equitable salaries. For its part, the Popular Party has carried on its longstanding attack on the government for threatening Spain's territorial integrity by granting greater autonomy to regional governments and for negotiating with...